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Kids say

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A lot or a little?

The parents' guide to what's in this app.

Educational Value

Kids can get inspiration and the occasional set of directions to help them with their own builds. The challenges might encourage kids to be more creative rather than just to follow directions.

Ease of Play

Navigating the app is still not entirely smooth, but most kids in the target age range will have no trouble figuring it out.

Violence

Many of the stop-motion animation videos include Lego-on-Lego violence, including the use of weapons. This is similar to the line of video games in that there's no blood or gore.

Sex

Language

Consumerism

While there are no banner ads or outside ads, the app basically serves as a giant Lego ad. In addition to the basic peer pressure that occurs as kids show off their collections, the app includes challenges that ask kids to build certain things, such as a pizza or a blue building. It also includes mentions of new products and videos that display specific Lego sets. Kids can't purchase from within the app.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Parents can expect there to be occasional pictures and videos that imply the use of alcohol.

What parents need to know

Parents need to know that LEGO Life - Create, share & discover is a social-networking-style experience for kids to share their love of all things Lego. Kids use an existing (or new) Lego ID to sign in and then create a username from random words. The user-profile settings (email, password, and so on) are behind a parent gate that uses simple multiplication problems. Kids can upload pictures, complete challenges, and comment using app-specific emojis. Moderators watch all comments and uploaded content, though during this review several images had captions with URLs for YouTube videos, and there's no way to report content in case something makes it past moderators. Because of its focus, there's no escape from the commercial nature of this experience. Read the app's privacy policy to find out about the information collected and shared.

What's it about?

LEGO LIFE - CREATE, SHARE & DISCOVER is a platform for kids to share their passion for Lego bricks and building. After creating a screen name from a canned set of choices, kids find themselves on the main timeline. There are pictures of Lego builds and mini-figures, build challenges, videos, new product announcements, and even the occasional build instructions. If kids see something they like, they can give it a heart and comment using Lego-specific emojis. They are also able to share their own images and see whether other kids like them and comment. After logging in, kids customize their avatar(s) in the style of a mini-figure with a small but flexible collection of hair pieces, heads, bodies, legs, and accessories. Kids can follow the streams of their favorite Lego franchises and characters. They also can follow other community members or topics.

Is it any good?

This is all Lego, all the time, which is super fun for fans, and the developers designed community features very thoughtfully, but kids who aren't obsessed might run out of reasons to log in. LEGO Life - Create, share & discover holds a certain promise for tweens to engage with each other in a safe and friendly environment. As it stands, though, there just isn't all that much to do. There are only so many Lego pictures a person wants to upload and comment on. With no way to connect with other users -- including friends and family -- it feels less like a community and more like a giant ad. What's nice for parents, however, is the relative safety and thought-through moderation features that will help kids interact around Legos without worrying about negativity.

Talk to your kids about ...

Families can talk about social media and your rules about what should -- and shouldn't -- be shared online. Talk about how LEGO Life - Create, share & discover is the same as and different from other social-networking apps.

How do you like this app as compared with other apps you could play? If you had or have limited screen time, would you pick this app over other apps on your device? Why, or why not?

Hold your own Lego challenge. What fun things can you come up with using a limited number of Lego bricks or only bricks of a certain color?

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